story time

for no apparent reason, i'm going to post the story of me attempting to cross the border between slovenia and italy without a passport about 8 years ago.



so i was in slovenia for a kayak race, and decided to go with three friends to venice for the day (it was only a 3 hour drive from where we were). i didn't think about needing my passport for a day trip, so when we got to the border i was like "shit." (i often do this columbo misplacement or forgetting of my possessions. i think i started having "senior moments" when i was 10)

on the way into italy, my friends let me out of the car ahead of time and i walked around the border and they picked me up on the other side. it worked like clock-work. but on the way back it was night, too dark to be doing that, and the border we came to was in the middle of a big flat field so there was no going around it without being seen. me and my friends decided it was a good idea for me to hide in the trunk with our smelly wet kayak gear. it was a fold-down seat, so i climbed in there without having to stop the car.

when the border police started asking questions of the driver (nick) i felt confident that he wouldn't look in the trunk, because the whole time i'd been travelling in europe our car trunk had never once been searched at a border. maybe it was the fact that the car occupants were male, or that it was late at night, i don't know. but i heard the guy ask nick to open the trunk and my heart started racing.

when he opened the trunk, i just laid there, curled in the smallest ball i could make, hoping that maybe a piece of gear was covering me sufficiently. yeah no. all the guy could see was me, i was taking up the whole trunk (i realized this after i got out). it was kind of awkward for awhile, the police dude didn't say anything, maybe he thought i was dead or something. so finally nick shook me as if i'd been sleeping and said "wake up, megan". i opened my eyes and stretched and yawned, as if i'd been sleeping. riiiight.

luckily i didn't get arrested. they just called the hotel and got my passport number from the front desk, and then searched the car top to bottom (and they were very thorough - leafing through every page of every book for example).

finally, when it was time to go, the police told me that i was now allowed to sit in the seat. we thanked them and zoomed away.